Norway: State Employee Unions Seeking More Time Off for Senior Workers

According to press reports, labor unions representing state workers are demanding 12 extra days off every year, plus even more for senior workers over age 62, in order to make it easier for the employees to take care of aging parents, for example, and to discourage older workers from retiring. In particular, "[o]ne of the unions, Akademikerne, also wants workers over age 62 to receive 28 additional days off, in addition to the 30 days of paid holiday they get every year. That means senior employees would effectively get three months off every year."

As reported by Newspaper VG, Rikke Ringsrød, the union's chief negotiator in the state, since the government is trying to get more people to remain longer in work and senior political holidays (currently, all state employees over 62 years receive eight holidays a year, plus up to 6 days as may be agreed with the local employer) have proven to be useful, the union proposal is to provide flexible arrangements that each individual can choose between reduced fractional positions or other arrangements to choose to be in the job. He further suggests that these are employees who are of great benefit to employers, and that it is better that they are nine months on the job than they disappear from the workplace.

VG says that Government Ministers Rigmor Aasrud, responsible in government for wage, would not comment on the union proposals.

Source: Views and News from Norway "State workers want more time off" (May 2, 2012)

Survey: Older UK Workers Less Likely To Take Sick Leave When They Do Not Need To

Research from Unum suggests that older workers in the United Kingdom demonstrate greater integrity than their younger colleagues when it comes to taking days of work sick when they don’t really need to. Specifically, 99% of 56 to 64 year old workers in full-time employment had not taken a single day off sick when they hadn’t really needed to in the past 12 months, while 25% of 16 to 24 year old and 17% of 25 to 34 year old workers had taken at least one day.

With respect to days taken off for genuine illness, Unum’s research revealed that older people take slightly more days off work than their younger colleagues: on average, 16 to 34 years old workers took approximately four days off a year while 45 to 54 year old workers took around seven and a half days. However, 55 to 64 year old workers took just under seven days.

Commenting on the findings from a medical point of view, Unum’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael O’Donnell, said:

Occupational Health professionals have long believed that short-term absence is less frequent in older workers. This research confirms that the reason for this is that they are less likely to take time off for trivial or spurious reasons.

Source: Unum Limited News Release (October 1, 2007)

Other Sources: Health Insurance & Protection "Older workers 'take less sickies'" (October 1, 2007)